I predicted (here, publicly) a week or two ago that the general election would feature Clinton and Rubio, with Rubio winning. I think the probability of my vindication went up quite a bit yesterday, though obviously there’s plenty of politicking to come.

We live in the DC burbs, so we always pay attention to our local industry, as do our friends. We were thinking the other night whether we actually knew ANYONE who is enthusiastic about the idea of President H Clinton. If we do, s/he is hiding his/her light under a bushel basket, for sure! H Clinton is the ‘eat your porridge’ candidate. My previously nonpolitical kid has a Bernie! sticker on his backpack. He made the effort to get himself to a Bernie rally out in Fairfax. Unheard of interest from this guy. And Jeb! was the eat-your-porridge candidate for the Reeps. So I find y81 pretty persuasive, as usual.

Because the party establishment will coalesce around Rubio, and the electorate will reject the more extreme candidates like Trump and Cruz. Another candidate who is perceived as conservative, but not a fire eater, and not a retread (like Bush), could catch fire in New Hampshire and join the mix, but I don’t know that would be.

Yeah, I’m not so certain the party will coalesce around Rubio now. Especially if Kasich comes in second and Cruz third. TBH, I’m thinking Jeb!’s campaign is actually coming back from the dead, simply through process of elimination.

On the same note, I’m not as worried as a Sanders vs. Rubio match up as I was a few days ago. Even with MSM support overwhelmingly behind Rubio, Sanders would eviscerate Rubio on the debate stage, and hiding Rubio’s gaffes is a lot harder with twitter and youtube and all these other social media outlets.

I do think Hillary will win in the end for the Democrats — I don’t think Sanders is going to survive the big states with big non-white populations.

And, I am enthusiastic about Hillary. I sent money the other day. I’m enthusiastic because I’ve always believed that she believed in the right enough things. I am not personally a socialist and I am not an isolationist. So there are a number of issues on which I lean to Hillary.

I supported Obama over Hillary, but against Sanders, I find it easy to support HIllary. And, on a personal level, I do admire her. I admire that she’s worked, sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes without credit, sometimes in public, and when necessary, with an ego-free acceptance of second place (or third place). I admire her willingness to get the job done. It is a refreshing antidote to the ego driven rhetoric one hears from Trump and Cruz.

I have the impression Sanders’ voters are enthusiastic. I do not sense that Hillary’s voters are enthusiastic. In our area, Bernie bumper stickers outnumber…. Well, I haven’t seen any Hillary bumper stickers. It’s a very liberal area. So I think it’s an open question as to whether Hillary’s voters will make the trip to the polls.

She does have an impressive lead in super delegates. If the Sanders trend continues, I think the use of super delegates to put her over the top would be immensely destructive for the Democratic party.

My husband thinks Elizabeth Warren will jump in, but I don’t. I think anyone who did not throw their hat into the ring before Iowa doesn’t want the presidency enough to put up with the process.

Now, if Bloomberg decides to run as an Independent, all bets are off, in both parties.

We are also in a very liberal area and it is undoubtedly the case that all the young people in our area are supporting Sanders. But, I think that is a liberal, elite, socioeconomically well off electorate (in our neck of the woods) — the same people who supported Ralph Nader in 2000, I think, rather than the same people who supported Obama in 2008 (there’s overlap, but I think there’s a significant missing part of the Democratic electorate in the Sanders camp).

I think Sanders is making inroads into some of these groups, but I will be surprised if it’s enough to win the primaries (even without the super delegates).

I don’t think the battle between Sanders and Clinton is going to be destructive for the democratic party because I think both candidates would do everything to support the Democratic candidate in 2016, and, as someone pointed out to me, we’d be paying no attention to the Democrats at all if Clinton was running unopposed.